“We're not sure of the origin of this particular obser-
vation, but it’s one of those remarks that seem
especially applicable to the newspaper business: “‘No
man ever lost money by underestimating the in-
_telligence of ‘his readers.”’ | :

‘We'll: start by apologizing for the gender ‘preference
of the quote — there are many prominent women in

the publishing world, but that’s the way thé words

have come down through history — and go on to take
a look at it’s validity. This issue of the Terrace Review
marks the beginning of our fifth year of publication.
There are any number of publications commonly
available (prominently displayed in the check-out areas
of supermarkets) which are daily proof that drivel
sells, providing a sort of argument that the average
newspaper reader comes. up on the short side of
discrimination, intelligence and in a large sense
basically lacking in those qualities that distinguish
humanity from beastiality, =
- Well, we’ve never bought that argument and we
never will. One maxim of journalistic writing is that
stories, should be set in language at approximately the
Grade 8 level, but that maxim doesn’t address the
level of intelligence so much as it is an attempt to keep
the language honest and accessible, Newspapers are a
common denominator of information for the com-
munity and readership they serve.
~ In view of the size (which directly translates into
market).of the Terrace-Thornhill area, this is un-
doubtedly the best-served region in British Columbia ~
in terms of media coverage. To bend the old Irish say-
ing a bit, you can’t sneeze in Terrace but what you
don’t sneeze on a reporter. The terms of survival in a
business sense become very tough under those circum-
stances, but over the past four years, and in fact over
the. past year, our subscription. and. advertising levels .
have gone up in spite of predictions as long as two
years ago that we were going to go under. |
This is a small corner of a very large world, but we
think it’s an important corner of the world for the
people who live here. When issues arise, we think that
the people who read our newspaper should have the |
most accurate information possible and the people in-
volved in those issues deserve the fairest possible treat-
ment. We think the news should be presented in an at--
tractive and readable format that doesn’t deceive
- anyone. We think those attitudes will be supported by
the.community at large, and up to this point we’ve
been right. See you next week... and next year.

* or

Ss

\eviiTines Gui.

Second-class mail
registration No. 6896.

All materiat appearing In the Terrace Review is
protected under Canadian copyright Registra-
tion No. 362775 and cannot legally be repro-
duced for any reason without permission of ihe
pubtisher.

Established May 1, 1985
The Terrace Review is published
.. each Wednesday by
Close-Up Business Services Ltd.

Publisher: Errore and omtssions. Advertising is sccepted
Mark Twyford on the condition that In the event of
Editor: typographical error, that portion of ihe sdvariis-
Eaitor, Ing space occupied by tie erroneous item will

‘Michael Kelly
Staff Reporter:

not be charged for, but the balance of the adver:
tlsament will be paid for at the applicable rate.
Advertisers must assumé responsibility for er-
Tod Strachan rare in any classified ed which Is supplied ta the
an . errace Review In handwritten form. :
. Advertising Manager. In compilance with the 6.C. Human Rights Act,
Mar) Twyford no advertisement will be published which
discriminates against a pereon due to aga, race,

Typesetting: religion, cator, sex, nationality, ancestry or place
“.. Carrie Olson of origin. :
:. Production Manager: 4535 Greig Avenue,
_ dhm Hall Terrace, B.C.
Production: V8G 1M? -
- Alvin. Stewart, Phone: 635-7840
Surbax Gill, Linda Mercer Fax: 635-7260
_ Office: eee
Carrie Olson ve One year subscriptions:
se hey on ot cna
Harminder Dosanjh ecanior In rerace and Distct $15.00

ys

- Wedn

"by Bob Jackman —

esday
Perspectives —

1 promised last week to ex-
pand on the mining conference,
so I won’t get crazy about
Michael Wilson’s Reverse
Robin Hood budget. I’m just
glad they ran out of money
before they got around to those
stupid, useless nuclear powered
submarines we were hearing
about before the election.

I wouldn’t be too surprised
to see some real secessionist

talk coming out of the West in -

the next few months. I’ve
thought for a number of years
that B.C. alone or with Alberta
would be a pretty credible
country. During the oil boom,
Alberta set aside a huge
Heritage Fund as insurance
against bad times. Today,
we've got a provincial govern-
ment-that’s actually balanced a
budget (you can split hairs
about how they did it if you.
want to) and built up a Budget
Stabilization Fund as insurance
against bad times (or for the
next.pre-election year, if you
want to be cynical!) Credit
ratings don’t go up for political
reasons either, so we know for
a fact that the world’s business
community likes what they’re
seeing in B.C.

On the other hand, Ottawa
(or Ottawa-Hull, as they’re
now announcing themselves on
federal letter-head) is a
disaster! The deficit keeps
growing at $30 BILLION pet
year — that’s over one thou-

. sand bucks per person, FOUR

thousand per average family, in

Canada. That sucks, as the

kids would say. And because

the political clout is in Ontario —

and Quebec, who gets the
gravy? There isn’t even a bowl
to lick’ by the time it gets to
B.C. (well, maybe one...).

e So we come back to Terrace

and the mining conference. We
have a vast resource available
to us in the northwest. The
minerals that have only started
to come out of the hills and
mountaintops of northwest
B.C. canbe a real stimulus to.
job creation, regional economic
expansion, and improvement of
our way of life.
‘Tom Waterland (who doesn’t
do bad for a paid lobbyist!)
probably said it best — mining

has always been the catalyst for

regional development. The
mine may only have a seven or
10 or 15 year life, but the roads
and powerlines and other ‘in--
frastructure’ that stays behind
opens the country to recrea-
tional use, other industry, com-

mercial ventures, and tourism. -

And though open pit mining is
worse than underground, the
effect on the environment is

-minimal. A mining portal or

adit may leave only a 20 foot
hole in the side of a mountain,
and even open pit mines revert
quickly to a more or less
natural state. True, we have to
watch to make sure they don’t

_ dump cyanide into our creeks,

but the licencing bodies take .
care of that, if they’re doing
their job. = - ;

On the legislative side, one
of mining’s biggest challenges
is to overcome the threat of
redistribution of our political
ridings. Whatever you may
think of the NDP and Larry
Guno, would you rather have
three ridings in the Northwest,
with three MLA’s fighting the
lonely fight in Victoria, or
two? Larry is a Vancouver
lawyer but he grew up in the
Northwest and he knows our
problems. Dave Parker and
Dan Miller have done what I
think is an excellent job of
bringirig the Northwest to the

atfention of the Southwest. As
Waterland said, we should be

$creaming up here against the:

domination of our political
system by people from the
lower mainland who've never
been to Kamloops, let alone
Terrace. mo,
The funding assistance pro-
gram for resource access roads
is in limbo, according to top

bureaucrat Ray Crook. Up to.

$5 million in loans are possible,
and fully one half of all ap-
plications currently in the
review process are in the
Northwest. But there is a
strong lobby against any en--

‘croachment on ‘pristine’ areas,.

and particularly against all-
weather roads, When an
environmentalist becomes a .
protectionist, anything other
than a full ‘wilderness ex-
perience’ is automatically bad.
Well, that might be fine if
you live in Vancouver and you
don’t want to see a gum wrap-
per or Pepsi can when you

‘head up to the boonies for

your two-week pristine
wilderness experience. But for
those of us who live in the
boonies, and who carry our

“garbage home with us after our

PWE, it’s going a little over-
board to suggest that over a
quarter of the province. be left
to stagnate.

What we seem to lose track
of sometimes is that when min-
ing or logging make some
Easterner or American a little

-ticher, everyone who lives in:

the region, or the province, |
becomes richer too, through
jobs, through access to the
now-famous PWE, and
through providing goods and

services to the mines, the log-.

ging outfits, and the mills. Too

‘bad we have to send so much
of it.to Michael and Brian!

Bg